Institut für Angewandte Physik Mikrowellenabteilung
Sidlerstrasse 5
3012 Bern
Schweiz
Tel. : +41 31 631 89 11
Fax. : +41 31 631 37 65
E-mail : matzler@iap.unibe.ch

1
Christian Mätzler, Institute of Applied Physics, University of Bern, June 2002
List of Contents
Abstract..............................................................................................................1
1 Introduction.....................................................................................................2
2 Formulas for a homogeneous sphere ................................................................2
2.1 Mie coefficients and Bessel functions ............................................................................ 2
2.2 Mie efficiencies and cross sections................................................................................. 4
2.3 The scattered far field ..................................................................................................... 4
2.4 The internal field............................................................................................................. 5
2.5 Computation of Q abs
, based on the internal field ............................................................ 6
3 The MATLAB Programs ....................................................................................7
3.1 Comments ....................................................................................................................... 7
3.2 The Function Mie_abcd .................................................................................................. 8
3.3 The Function Mie ........................................................................................................... 8
3.4 The Function Mie_S12 ................................................................................................... 9
3.5 The Function Mie_xscan ................................................................................................ 10
3.6 The Function Mie_tetascan............................................................................................. 10
3.7 The Function Mie_pt ...................................................................................................... 11
3.8 The Function Mie_Esquare............................................................................................. 11
3.9 The Function Mie_abs .................................................................................................... 12
4 Examples and Tests .......................................................................................13
4.1 The situation of x=1, m=5+0.4i ...................................................................................... 13
4.2 Large size parameters ..................................................................................................... 15
4.3 Large refractive index..................................................................................................... 16
5 Conclusion, and outlook to further developments ...........................................18
References ........................................................................................................18
A set of Mie functions has been developed in MATLAB to compute the four Mie coefficients a n
, b n
, c n
and d n
, efficiencies of extinction, scattering, backscattering and absorption, the asymmetry parameter, and the two angular scattering functions S
1 and S
2
. In addition to the scattered field, also the absolute-square of the internal field is computed and used to get the absorption efficiency in a way independent from the scattered field. This allows to test the computational accuracy.
This first version of MATLAB Mie Functions is limited to homogeneous dielectric spheres without change in the magnetic permeability between the inside and outside of the particle. Required input parameters are the complex refractive index, m= m’+ i m” , of the sphere (relative to the ambient medium) and the size parameter, x=ka , where a is the sphere radius and k the wave number in the ambient medium.

2
This report is a description of Mie-Scattering and Mie-Absorption programs written in the numeric computation and visualisation software, MATLAB (Math Works,
1992), for the improvement of radiative-transfer codes, especially to account for rain and hail in the microwave range and for aerosols and clouds in the submillimeter, infrared and visible range. Excellent descriptions of Mie Scattering were given by van de Hulst (1957) and by Bohren and Huffman (1983). The present programs are related to the formalism of Bohren and Huffman (1983). In addition an extension
(Section 2.5) is given to describe the radial dependence of the internal electric field of the scattering sphere and the absorption resulting from this field. Except for
Section 2.5, equation numbers refer to those in Bohren and Huffman (1983), in short BH, or in case of missing equation numbers, page numbers are given. For a description of computational problems in the Mie calculations, see the notes on p.
126-129 and in Appendix A of BH.
MATLAB function: Mie_abcd
The key parameters for Mie calculations are the Mie coefficients a n
and b n
to compute the amplitudes of the scattered field, and c n
and d n
for the internal field, respectively. The computation of these parameters has been the most challenging part in Mie computations due to the involvement of spherical Bessel functions up to high order. With MATLAB’s built-in double-precision Bessel functions, the computation of the Mie coefficients has so far worked well up to size parameters exceeding 10’000; the coefficients are given in BH on p.100: a n b n
=
= m m 2
2 j n j n
( mx )[
( mx )[ xj n xh n
( 1 )
(
( x )]' − x )]' −
µ
µ
1 j n
(
1 h ( n
1 ) x )[
( x mxj n
( mx
)[ mxj n
(
)]' mx )]'
µ
1
µ
1 j n j n
(
( mx mx )[
)[ xj xh ( n
1 ) n
( x )]' −
( x )]' − j h n
( 1 ) n
( x )[ mxj n
( x )[ mxj
( n mx
(
)]' mx )]'
(4.53) c n d n
=
=
µ
1
µ
1 j n j n
( x )[
( mx )[ xh ( n
1 ) xh n
( 1 )
(
( x x
)]' − µ
1 h n
( 1 )
)]' − h n
( 1 ) (
( x )[ x )[ xj mxj n n
( x )]'
( mx )]' m
µ
1 mj n
2 j n
(
( x )[ mx )[ xh n
( 1 ) xh n
( 1 ) (
( x )]' − x )]' −
µ
1 mh ( n
1 )
µ
1 h ( n
1 ) (
( x )[ x )[ xj n mxj n
( x )]'
( mx )]'
(4.52) where m is the refractive index of the sphere relative to the ambient medium, x=ka is the size parameter, a the radius of the sphere and k =2 π / λ is the wave number and λ the wavelength in the ambient medium. In deviation from BH, µ
1
is the ratio of the magnetic permeability of the sphere to the magnetic permeability of the ambient medium (corresponding to µ
1
/ µ in BH). The functions j n
( z ) and h n
( 1 ) ( z ) = j n
( z )+i y n
( z ) are spherical Bessel functions of order n ( n = 1, 2,..) and of the given arguments, z = x or mx , respectively, and primes mean derivatives with respect to the argument. The derivatives follow from the spherical Bessel functions themselves, namely
[ zj n
( z )]' = zj n − 1
( z ) − nj n
( z ); [ zh ( n
1 ) ( z )]' = zh ( n
1 )
− 1
( z ) − nh ( n
1 ) ( z ) (p.127)

3
For completeness, the following relationships between Bessel and spherical Bessel functions are given: j n
( z ) =
π
2 z
J n + 0 .
5
( z ) (4.9) y n
( z ) =
π
2 z
Y n + 0 .
5
( z ) (4.10)
Here, J
ν
and Y
ν
are Bessel functions of the first and second kind. For n =0 and 1 the spherical Bessel functions are given (BH, p. 87) by y j
0
( z ) = sin z / z ;
0
( z ) j
= − cos z / z ;
1
( z ) y
1
( z
=
) sin z / z 2
= − cos
− z / cos z 2 − z / z sin z / z and the recurrence formula f n − 1
( z ) + f n + 1
( z ) =
2 n + 1 z f n
( z ) (4.11) where f n
is any of the functions j n
and y n
. Taylor-series expansions for small arguments of j n
and y n
are given on p. 130 of BH. The spherical Hankel functions are linear combinations of j n
and y n
. Here, the first type is required h n
( 1 ) ( z ) = j n
( z ) + iy n
( z ) (4.13)
The following related functions are also used in Mie theory (although we try to avoid them here):
ψ n
( z ) = zj n
( z ); χ n
( z ) = − zy n
( z ); ξ n
( z ) = zh n
( 1 ) ( z ) (p.101, 183)
Often µ
1
=1; then, (4.52-4.53) simplify to a b n n
=
= m m
2
2 j n j n
(
( mx mx )[
)[ xj xh ( n n
1 )
(
( x x
)]' −
)]' − j h n n
(
(
1 ) x
(
)[ mxj n x )[ mxj
( n mx )]'
( mx )]' j n j
( n
( mx mx )[
)[ xj n xh ( n
1 )
(
( x x
)]' − j n
)]' − h
( n
( 1 ) x
(
)[ mxj n x )[ mxj
( n mx )]'
( mx )]'
; c n d n
=
= j n j n
(
( mx x
)[
)[ xh ( xh ( n n
1 )
1 )
(
( x )]' x )]' −
− h h n
( n
1 )
( 1 )
(
( x x )[
)[ xj mxj n n
(
( x )]' mx )]'
; m 2 mj n j n
(
( mx x )[
)[ xh n
( 1 ) xh n
( 1 )
(
( x )]' − x )]' − mh h ( n
( n
1 )
1 )
(
( x )[ xj n x )[ mxj n
( x )]'
( mx )]'
The parameters used in radiative transfer depend on a n
and b n d n
, but not on c n
and
. The latter coefficients are needed when the electric field inside the sphere is of interest, e.g. to test the field penetration in the sphere, to study the distribution of heat sources or to compute absorption. The absorption efficiency Q abs
, however, can also be computed from the scattered radiation, Equations (3.25), (4.61-62) to be shown below.

MATLAB functions: Mie, Mie_xscan
The efficiencies Q i
for the interaction of radiation with a scattering sphere of radius a are cross sections σ i
(called C i
in BH) normalised to the particle cross section, π a 2 , where i stands for extinction ( i=ext ), absorption ( i=abs ), scattering ( i=sca ), backscattering ( i=b ), and radiation pressure ( i=pr ), thus
Q i
=
π
σ i a 2
Energy conservation requires that
Q ext
= Q sca
+ Q abs
, or σ ext
= σ sca
+ σ abs
(3.25)
The scattering efficiency Q sca
follows from the integration of the scattered power over all directions, and the extinction efficiency Q ext
follows from the Extinction Theorem
(Ishimaru, 1978, p. 14, van de Hulst, 1957, p. 31), also called Forward-Scattering
Theorem, leading to:
Q sca
=
2 x 2 n
∞
∑
= 1
( 2 n + 1 )( a n
2 + b n
2
) (4.61)
Q ext
=
2 x 2 n
∞
∑
= 1
( 2 n + 1 ) Re( a n
+ b n
) (4.62) and Q abs follows from (3.25). All infinite series can be truncated after n this number Bohren and Huffman (1983) proposed the value max
terms. For n max
= x + 4 x 1 / 3 + 2 (p.477) and this value is used here as well.
Furthermore, the asymmetry parameter g = cos θ indicates the average cosine of the scattering angle θ with respect to power; it is used in Two-Stream Models (Meador and Weaver, 1980), and it is related to the efficiency Q pr
of radiation pressure:
Q pr
= Q ext
− Q sca cos θ (p.120)
Q sca cos θ =
4 x 2 n
∞
∑
= 1 n ( n n
+
+ 1
2 )
Re( a n a * n + 1
+ b n b * n + 1
) + n
∞
∑
= 1
2 n n ( n
+ 1
+ 1 )
Re( a n b * n
) 
Finally, the backscattering efficiency Q b
, applicable to monostatic radar, is given by
Q b
=
1 x 2 n
∞
= 1
( 2 n + 1 )( − 1 ) n ( a n
− b n
)
2
(p.122)
4
MATLAB functions: Mie_S12, Mie_pt, Mie_tetascan
If the detailed shape of the angular scattering pattern is required, e.g. to get the phase matrix or phase function for radiative-transfer calculations (Chandrasekhar,
1960), the scattering functions S
1
and S
2
are required. These functions describe the scattered field E s
. The scattered far field in spherical coordinates ( E s θ
, E s φ
) for a unit-

amplitude incident field (where the time variation exp(-i ω t) has been omitted) is given by
E s θ
E s φ
=
= e ikr
− ikr e ikr ikr cos sin φ ⋅
φ ⋅ S
2
(cos θ
S
1
(cos θ )
) with the scattering amplitudes S
1
and S
2
S
1
(cos θ )
S
2
(cos θ )
= n
∞
∑
= 1
2 n + 1 n ( n + 1 )
( a n
π n
= n
∞
∑
= 1
2 n + 1 n ( n + 1 )
( a n
τ n
+ b n
τ n
) ;
+ b n
π n
)
(p.111)
(4.74)
E s θ is the scattered far-field component in the scattering plane, defined by the incident and scattered directions, and E s φ
is the orthogonal component. The angle φ is the angle between the incident electric field and the scattering plane. The functions
π n
(cos θ ) and τ n
(cos θ ) describe the angular scattering patterns of the spherical harmonics used to describe S
1
and S
2
and follow from the recurrence relations
π n
=
2 n n
−
− 1
1 cos θ ⋅ π n − 1
− n n
− 1
π n − 2
; τ n
= n cos θ ⋅ π n
− ( n + 1 ) π n − 1
(4.47) starting with (Deirmendjian, 1969, p. 15)
π
0
= 0 ; π
1
= 1 ; π
2
= 3 cos θ ; τ
0
= 0 ; τ
1
= cos θ ; τ
2
= 3 cos( 2 θ )
5
MATLAB function: presently, no direct function, but see Mie_Esquare
The internal field E
1
for an incident field with unit amplitude is given by
E
1
= n
∞
∑
= 1
2 n + 1 ) n ( n + 1 )
( c n
M ( o
1 )
1 n
− d n
N ( 1 ) e 1 n
)
(4.40) where the vector-wave harmonic fields are given in spherical ( r , θ , φ ) coordinates by
M ( o
1 )
1 n
N ( e
1
1
) n
= 

0 cos
−
φ sin
⋅ π
φ n
⋅ τ
(cos θ n
(cos
)
θ j n
) j
( n rmx )
( rmx )


=






 n ( n cos
−
+ 1 ) cos
φ sin
⋅
φ
τ n
φ
(cos
⋅ π n
⋅ sin
θ
(cos
)
θ
θ ⋅ π n
(cos θ )
[ rmxj n
( rmx rmx
)]'
)
[ rmxj n
( rmx rmx
)]' j n
( rmx rmx
) 






(4.50) and the coordinate system is defined as for the scattered field. The vector-wave functions N and M are orthogonal with respect to integration over directions. Furthermore for different values of n , the N functions are orthogonal, too, and the same is true for the M functions.

abs
MATLAB functions: Mie_Esquare, Mie_abs
The absorption cross section of a particle with dielectric (i.e. Ohmic) losses is given by (Ishimaru, 1978, p. 17)
σ abs
= k ε " E
1
V
∫ 2 dV (1) where ε ” is the imaginary part of the relative dielectric constant of the particle (here with respect to the ambient medium). Thanks to the orthogonality of the spherical vector-wave functions this integral becomes in spherical coordinates
σ abs
= k ε " π n
∞
= 1
+ 1
− 1 d (cos θ )
0
a r 2 dr
( c n
2
( m
θ
+ m
φ
) + d n
2
( n r
+ n
θ
+ n
φ
)
)
(2) and the integration over azimuth φ has already been performed, leading to the factor
π . The functions in the integrand are absolute-square values of the series terms of the components of the vector-waves (4.50) m
θ m
φ
= g n
π 2 n
(cos θ ) ⋅
= g n
τ 2 n
(cos θ ) ⋅ j n
( z )
2 j n
( z )
2 n r n
θ n
φ
=
=
= g n sin 2 θ ⋅ π 2 n
(cos θ ) g n
τ 2 n
(cos θ )
( zj n
( z ) '
) z
2 j n
( z ) z
2 g n
π 2 n
(cos θ )
( zj n
( z )
)
'
2 z
(3)
Here z=mrk , and g n
stands for g n
=


2 n n ( n
+ 1
+ 1 )


2
(4)
For the integrals over cos θ , analytic solutions can be obtained. First, from BH we find
∫
1
− 1
(
π 2 n
(cos θ ) + τ 2 n
(cos θ )
) d (cos θ ) =
2 n 2 ( n + 1 ) 2
2 n + 1
(p.103) and second, from (4.46) in BH and Equation 8.14.13 of Abramowitz and Stegun
(1965), we get
∫
1
− 1
( sin 2 θ ⋅ π 2 n
(cos θ )
) d (cos θ ) = ∫
1
− 1
(
P n
1 (cos θ )
2
) d (cos θ ) =
2 ( n + 1 )
2 n + 1 leading to the two parts (6) and (7) of the angular integral in (2) m n
= ∫
1
− 1
( m
θ
+ m
φ
) d (cos θ ) = 2 ( 2 n + 1 ) j n
( z )
2
(5)
(6)
6

n n
=
1
∫
− 1
( n r
+ n
θ
+ n
φ
) d (cos θ ) = 2 n ( 2 n + 1 ) ( n + 1 ) j n
( z ) z
2
+
( zj n
( z ) '
) z
2
(7)
Now, the absorption cross section follows from integration over the radial distance r inside the sphere up to the sphere radius a :
σ abs
= k ε " π n
∞
a
= 1 0
( m n c n
2 + n n d n
2 ⋅
) r 2 dr (8)
The integrand contains the radial dependence of the absolute-square electric field
E
2 averaged over spherical shells (all θ and φ , constant r ):
E
2 =
1
4
∞
∑ n = 1
( m n c n
2 + n n d n
2
) and in terms of this quantity, the absorption efficiency becomes
(9)
Q abs
=
4 ε " x 2 x
0
E
2 x ' 2 dx ' (10) where x’=rk=z/m . Note that (9) is dimensionless because of the unit-amplitude incident field; In case of Rayleigh scattering ( x <<1) the internal field is constant, and the corresponding squared-field ratio (9) is given by m 2
9
+ 2
2
(11)
This quantity can be used to test the accuracy of the function, Mie_Esquare , for small size parameters. In addition, Equation (10) can be used to test the accuracy of the computation of Q abs
from the difference, Q ext
– Q sca
(4.61-62). Finally, it should be remembered that all infinite series can be terminated after n max
terms.
7
3.1.1 Restrictions
1.
The present restrictions are situations with µ
1
=1; this means that the permittivity of the sphere relative to the ambient medium is given by ε = m 2 .
2.
There is a maximum x value for stable and correct computation of Mie scattering. For a small or moderate imaginary refractive index m ”, the maximum size parameter ranges somewhere between 10 4 and 10 5 , however, for m ”>>1, the maximum size parameter is strongly diminished.
3.1.2 Computation of Bessel Functions
The ordinary Bessel Functions J
ν
(z) and Y
ν
(z) are standard functions in MATLAB.
The spherical Bessel Functions used here follow from (4.9-10) of BH.
3.1.3 Computation of angular functions
The angular functions, π n
and τ n
, are computed from the recurrence relations (4.47) of BH with the initial functions given for n =1 and 2.

8
3.1.4 Optimisation strategy
The programs were optimised rather with respect to computation speed than memory space; all required function values are computed only once and then stored for further use in vectors of dimension n max
.
The following text lists the basic program to compute the Mie Coefficients a n c n
, d n
and to produce a matrix of n max
column vectors [ a n
; b n
; c n
; d n
]:
, b n
, function result = Mie_abcd(m, x)
% Computes a matrix of Mie coefficients, a_n, b_n, c_n, d_n,
% of orders n=1 to nmax, complex refractive index m=m'+im",
% and size parameter x=k0*a, where k0= wave number
% in the ambient medium, a=sphere radius;
% p. 100, 477 in Bohren and Huffman (1983) BEWI:TDD122
% C. Mätzler, June 2002 nmax=round(2+x+4*x^(1/3)); n=(1:nmax); nu = (n+0.5); z=m.*x; m2=m.*m; sqx= sqrt(0.5*pi./x); sqz= sqrt(0.5*pi./z); bx = besselj(nu, x).*sqx; bz = besselj(nu, z).*sqz; yx = bessely(nu, x).*sqx; hx = bx+i*yx; b1x=[sin(x)/x, bx(1:nmax-1)]; b1z=[sin(z)/z, bz(1:nmax-1)]; y1x=[-cos(x)/x, yx(1:nmax-1)]; h1x= b1x+i*y1x; ax = x.*b1x-n.*bx; az = z.*b1z-n.*bz; ahx= x.*h1x-n.*hx; an = (m2.*bz.*ax-bx.*az)./(m2.*bz.*ahx-hx.*az); bn = (bz.*ax-bx.*az)./(bz.*ahx-hx.*az); cn = (bx.*ahx-hx.*ax)./(bz.*ahx-hx.*az); dn = m.*(bx.*ahx-hx.*ax)./(m2.*bz.*ahx-hx.*az); result=[an; bn; cn; dn];
The following text lists the Program to compute the Mie Efficiencies : function result = Mie(m, x)
% Computation of Mie Efficiencies for given
% complex refractive-index ratio m=m'+im"
% and size parameter x=k0*a, where k0= wave number in ambient
% medium, a=sphere radius, using complex Mie Coefficients
% an and bn for n=1 to nmax,
% s. Bohren and Huffman (1983) BEWI:TDD122, p. 103,119-122,477.
% Result: m', m", x, efficiencies for extinction (qext),
% scattering (qsca), absorption (qabs), backscattering (qb),

9
% asymmetry parameter (asy=<costeta>) and (qratio=qb/qsca).
% Uses the function "Mie_abcd" for an and bn, for n=1 to nmax.
% C. Mätzler, May 2002.
if x==0 % To avoid a singularity at x=0
result=[real(m) imag(m) 0 0 0 0 0 0 1.5]; elseif x>0 % This is the normal situation
nmax=round(2+x+4*x^(1/3));
n1=nmax-1;
n=(1:nmax);cn=2*n+1; c1n=n.*(n+2)./(n+1); c2n=cn./n./(n+1);
x2=x*x;
f=mie_abcd(m,x);
anp=(real(f(1,:))); anpp=(imag(f(1,:)));
bnp=(real(f(2,:))); bnpp=(imag(f(2,:)));
g1(1:4,nmax)=[0; 0; 0; 0]; % displaced numbers used for
g1(1,1:n1)=anp(2:nmax); % asymmetry parameter, p. 120
g1(2,1:n1)=anpp(2:nmax);
g1(3,1:n1)=bnp(2:nmax);
g1(4,1:n1)=bnpp(2:nmax);
dn=cn.*(anp+bnp);
q=sum(dn);
qext=2*q/x2;
en=cn.*(anp.*anp+anpp.*anpp+bnp.*bnp+bnpp.*bnpp);
q=sum(en);
qsca=2*q/x2;
qabs=qext-qsca;
fn=(f(1,:)-f(2,:)).*cn;
gn=(-1).^n;
f(3,:)=fn.*gn;
q=sum(f(3,:));
qb=q*q'/x2;
asy1=c1n.*(anp.*g1(1,:)+anpp.*g1(2,:)+bnp.*g1(3,:)+bnpp.*g1(4,:));
asy2=c2n.*(anp.*bnp+anpp.*bnpp);
asy=4/x2*sum(asy1+asy2)/qsca;
qratio=qb/qsca;
result=[real(m) imag(m) x qext qsca qabs qb asy qratio]; end;
The following text lists the program to compute the two complex scattering amplitudes S
1
and S
2
: function result = Mie_S12(m, x, u)
% Computation of Mie Scattering functions S1 and S2
% for complex refractive index m=m'+im",
% size parameter x=k0*a, and u=cos(scattering angle),
% where k0=vacuum wave number, a=sphere radius;
% s. p. 111-114, Bohren and Huffman (1983) BEWI:TDD122
% C. Mätzler, May 2002 nmax=round(2+x+4*x^(1/3));

10 abcd=Mie_abcd(m,x); an=abcd(1,:); bn=abcd(2,:); pt=Mie_pt(u,nmax); pin =pt(1,:); tin=pt(2,:); n=(1:nmax); n2=(2*n+1)./(n.*(n+1)); pin=n2.*pin; tin=n2.*tin;
S1=(an*pin'+bn*tin');
S2=(an*tin'+bn*pin'); result=[S1;S2];
The following text lists the program to compute the a matrix of Mie efficiencies and to plot them as a function of x: function result = Mie_xscan(m, nsteps, dx)
% Computation and plot of Mie Efficiencies for given
% complex refractive-index ratio m=m'+im"
% and range of size parameters x=k0*a,
% starting at x=0 with nsteps increments of dx
% a=sphere radius, using complex Mie coefficients an and bn
% according to Bohren and Huffman (1983) BEWI:TDD122
% result: m', m", x, efficiencies for extinction (qext),
% scattering (qsca), absorption (qabs), backscattering (qb),
% qratio=qb/qsca and asymmetry parameter (asy=<costeta>).
% C. Mätzler, May 2002.
nx=(1:nsteps)'; x=(nx-1)*dx; for j = 1:nsteps
a(j,:)=Mie(m,x(j)); end; output_parameters='Real(m), Imag(m), x, Qext, Qsca, Qabs, Qb, <costeta>,
Qb/Qsca' m1=real(m);m2=imag(m); plot(a(:,3),a(:,4:9)) % plotting the results legend('Qext','Qsca','Qabs','Qb','<costeta>','Qb/Qsca') title(sprintf('Mie Efficiencies, m=%g+%gi',m1,m2)) xlabel('x') result=a;
The following text lists the program to compute the a matrix of Mie scattering intensities S
1
2 and S
2
2
as a function of u=cos θ , and to display the result as a polar diagram of θ with S
1
2
in the upper half circle (0< θ < π ) and S
2
2
in the lower half circle ( π < θ <2 π ). Both functions are symmetric with respect to both half circles:

11 function result = Mie_tetascan(m, x, nsteps)
% Computation and plot of Mie Power Scattering function for given
% complex refractive-index ratio m=m'+im", size parameters x=k0*a,
% according to Bohren and Huffman (1983) BEWI:TDD122
% C. Mätzler, May 2002.
nsteps=nsteps; m1=real(m); m2=imag(m); nx=(1:nsteps); dteta=pi/(nsteps-1); teta=(nx-1).*dteta;
for j = 1:nsteps,
u=cos(teta(j));
a(:,j)=Mie_S12(m,x,u);
SL(j)= real(a(1,j)'*a(1,j));
SR(j)= real(a(2,j)'*a(2,j));
end; y=[teta teta+pi;SL SR(nsteps:-1:1)]'; polar(y(:,1),y(:,2)) title(sprintf('Mie angular scattering: m=%g+%gi, x=%g',m1,m2,x)); xlabel('Scattering Angle') result=y;
The following text lists the program to compute a matrix of π n n =1 to n max
:
and τ n
functions for function result=Mie_pt(u,nmax)
% pi_n and tau_n, -1 <= u= cos θ <= 1, n1 integer from 1 to nmax
% angular functions used in Mie Theory
% Bohren and Huffman (1983), p. 94 - 95 p(1)=1; t(1)=u; p(2)=3*u; t(2)=3*cos(2*acos(u)); for n1=3:nmax,
p1=(2*n1-1)./(n1-1).*p(n1-1).*u;
p2=n1./(n1-1).*p(n1-2);
p(n1)=p1-p2;
t1=n1*u.*p(n1);
t2=(n1+1).*p(n1-1);
t(n1)=t1-t2; end; result=[p;t];
The following text lists the program to compute and plot the ( θ , φ ) averaged absolute-square E-field as a function of x’ = rk (for r <0< a ):

12 function result = Mie_Esquare(m, x, nj)
% Computation of nj+1 equally spaced values within (0,x)
% of the mean-absolute-square internal
% electric field of a sphere of size parameter x,
% complex refractive index m=m'+im",
% where the averaging is done over teta and phi,
% with unit-amplitude incident field;
% Ref. Bohren and Huffman (1983) BEWI:TDD122,
% and my own notes on this topic;
% k0=2*pi./wavelength;
% x=k0.*radius;
% C. Mätzler, May 2002 nmax=round(2+x+4*x^(1/3)); n=(1:nmax); nu =(n+0.5); m1=real(m); m2=imag(m); abcd=Mie_abcd(m,x); cn=abcd(3,:);dn=abcd(4,:); cn2=abs(cn).^2; dn2=abs(dn).^2; dx=x/nj; for j=1:nj,
xj=dx.*j;
z=m.*xj;
sqz= sqrt(0.5*pi./z);
bz = besselj(nu, z).*sqz; % This is jn(z)
bz2=(abs(bz)).^2;
b1z=[sin(z)/z, bz(1:nmax-1)]; % Note that sin(z)/z=j0(z)
az = b1z-n.*bz./z;
az2=(abs(az)).^2;
z2=(abs(z)).^2;
n1 =n.*(n+1);
n2 =2.*(2.*n+1);
mn=real(bz2.*n2);
nn1=az2;
nn2=bz2.*n1./z2;
nn=n2.*real(nn1+nn2);
en(j)=0.25*(cn2*mn'+dn2*nn'); end; xxj=[0:dx:xj]; een=[en(1) en]; plot(xxj,een); legend('Radial Dependence of (abs(E))^2') title(sprintf('Squared Amplitude E Field in a Sphere, m=%g+%gi x=%g',m1,m2,x)) xlabel('r k') result=een;
The following text lists the program to compute the absorption efficiency , based on
Equation (9):

function result = Mie_abs(m, x)
% Computation of the Absorption Efficiency Qabs
% of a sphere of size parameter x,
% complex refractive index m=m'+im",
% based on nj internal radial electric field values
% to be computed with Mie_Esquare(nj,m,x)
% Ref. Bohren and Huffman (1983) BEWI:TDD122,
% and my own notes on this topic;
% k0=2*pi./wavelength;
% x=k0.*radius;
% C. Mätzler, May 2002 nj=5*round(2+x+4*x.^(1/3))+160; e2=imag(m.*m); dx=x/nj; x2=x.*x; nj1=nj+1; xj=(0:dx:x); en=Mie_Esquare(m,x,nj); en1=0.5*en(nj1).*x2; % End-Term correction in integral enx=en*(xj.*xj)'-en1; % Trapezoidal radial integration inte=dx.*enx;
Qabs=4.*e2.*inte./x2; result=Qabs;
The execution of the command line
>> m =5 + 0.4i; x = 1; mie_abcd(m,x) leads to column vectors [ a n
; b n
; c n
; d n
] for n=1 to n max
=7: ans =
Columns 1 through 4 (for n=1 to 4)
0.2306 - 0.2511i 0.0055 - 0.0354i 0.0000 - 0.0008i 0.0000 - 0.0000i
0.0627 + 0.1507i 0.0159 + 0.0262i 0.0004 - 0.0006i 0.0000 - 0.0000i
-0.6837 + 0.0128i -0.3569 + 0.2199i 0.0752 + 0.0339i 0.0076 + 0.0000i
-1.1264 + 0.0093i 0.2135 + 0.1212i 0.0180 + 0.0003i 0.0023 - 0.0004i
Columns 5 through 7 (for n=5 to 7)
0.0000 - 0.0000i 0.0000 - 0.0000i 0.0000 - 0.0000i
0.0000 - 0.0000i 0.0000 - 0.0000i 0.0000 - 0.0000i
0.0010 - 0.0002i 0.0002 - 0.0000i 0.0000 - 0.0000i
0.0003 - 0.0001i 0.0001 - 0.0000i 0.0000 - 0.0000i
>> mie(m,x)
13

14
2.5
2
1.5
1
0.5
0
-0.5
0
4
3.5
3 ans =
Columns 1 through 7 (for m’, m”, x, Qext, Qsca, Qabs, Qb)
5.0000 0.4000 1.0000 1.9794 0.8795 1.0999 1.1138
Columns 8 through 9 (for <cos θ >, Qb/Qsca)
-0.0595 1.2664
To test the absorption efficiency, call Mie_abs :
>> Mie_abs(m,x) ans =
1.0999
to confirm the result of mie(m,x) , s. above.
Mie Efficiencies are plotted versus x (0 ≤ x ≤ 2) by Mie_xscan(m,201,0.01) in Fig. 1. Two absorption peaks can be observed near x =0.6 and 0.85 and a rapid variation of the scattering behaviour between the forward and backward hemisphere.
To plot the angular dependence of the scattered power in the two polarisations, the function Mie_tetascan(m,x,201) , for x =1, is used to provide Figure 2.
Furthermore the absolute-square internal field is plotted versus the radial distance in Figure 3 by calling Mie_Esquare (automatically called by Mie_abs ).
Mie Efficiencies, m=5+0.4i
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1 x
Qext
Qsca
Qabs
Qb
<costeta>
Qb/Qsca
1.2
1.4
1.6
1.8
2
Figure 1: Mie Efficiencies for m =5+0.4i versus x output of the function,
Mie_xscan . Note the sign
, of <cos θ > changes a few times between x ≅ 0.6 and
1.1.

15
180
150
Mie angular scattering: m=5+0.4i, x=1
90
0.4
120 60
0.3
0.2
0.1
30
0
210 330
Figure 2: Angular Mie-scattering diagram of S
1
2
(upper Half circle) and of
S
2
2
(lower half circle). Here, scattering in the backward hemisphere is slightly larger than in the forward hemisphere (<cos θ > <0), a situation mostly restricted to the region near x =1.
240 300
270
Scattering Angle
Squared Amplitude E Field in a Sphere, m=5+0.4i, x=1
Radial Dependence of (abs(E))
2
1.4
1.2
1
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
0
0 0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
r k
0.6
0.7
0.8
0.9
1
Figure 3: Radial variation of the ratio of the internal/external absolutesquare electric field with parameters given in the figure title. Here, the field is concentrated in the sphere centre.
To test the behaviour at low x values, Figure 1 indicates that the ratio Q b
/Q sca approaches 1.5 near x =0. This is exactly the value obtained for Rayleigh scattering
(Ishimaru, 1978). For x =0.1 Equation (9) gives absolute square internal field values between 0.0130 in the sphere centre and 0.0137 at the sphere surface, and for decreasing x the absolute square internal field of 0.0122 of the Rayleigh Expression
(11) is reached at x =0.01. This means that the validity of the Rayleigh Approximation is quite limited, especially for large values of m .
For x >>1, a large number of spherical harmonics have to be computed. Here we consider the example of m =2+0.01i. Figure 4 shows the Mie Efficiencies over the x range from 0 to 25. As a result of the Extinction Paradox (van de Hulst, 1957), Q ext approaches the value 2 for very large x . The computed values are slightly higher in
Figure 4. For increasing x , Qext decreases to 2.09 at x =100, to 2.01 at x =2800 and to Qext =2.0014 for x =40’000. The program still works at x =70'000 ( Qext =2.0012), but for x >80'000 NaN values are returned.

6
4
2
16
In addition, for x >>1, the backscatter efficiency Q b optics expression
should approach the geometrical-
Q b
= m 2 m 2
− 1
2
+ 1 which is 0.1111 in the present case. With m =2+0.01i, this value is obtained from the Function Mie for x > 300.
Mie Efficiencies, m=2+0.01i
14
12
10
Qext
Qsca
Qabs
Qb
<costeta>
Qb/Qsca
8
0
0 5 10 15 20 25 x
Figure 4: Mie Efficiencies for m =2+0.01i over the x range from 0 to 25. The parameter with the maximum values and with the largest fluctuations is Q b
. The curves of Q ext
and Q sca
follow each other closely near values of 2. The lowest curve shows Q abs
, and <cos θ > approaches 1 for high x values.
Problems arise for high values of m . This situation occurs for metallic spheres, e.g.
if m =50+50i, the maximum size parameter is about 13, and this value decreases with increasing m . A plot of efficiencies with m =50+50i is shown in Figure 5, and the radial dependence of the absolute-square E field is shown in Figure 6 for x =0.5; the skin effect is very pronounced already at this small x value. Furthermore, due to

17 the acting depolarisation field, the internal field is very small even at the sphere surface.
Mie Efficiencies, m=50+50i
4
3.5
3
2.5
Qext
Qsca
Qabs
Qb
<costeta>
Qb/Qsca
2
1.5
1
0.5
0
-0.5
0 2 4 x
6 8
Figure 5: Mie efficiencies for a metal-like material ( m =50+50i).
2
1.5
3.5
x 10
-4 Squared Amplitude E Field in a Sphere, m=50+50i, x=0.5
3 Radial Dependence of (abs(E))
2
2.5
1
0.5
0
0 0.05
0.1
0.15
0.2
0.25
r k
0.3
0.35
0.4
0.45
0.5
10 12
Figure 6: Radial variation of the ratio of the internal/external absolute-square electric field for m =50+50i, x =0.5. The skin effect is clearly indicated by the concentration of the field near the sphere surface.

18
The presented software represents the first major programming effort by the author in MATLAB; therefore the programs may not yet be optimum. Nevertheless, no severe problems have been encountered so far. Indeed, MATLAB appears to be a very efficient and accurate computing language suitable for the present application.
However, further tests are required to get a more complete assessment of the Mie functions. Improvements are required to allow Mie computations for metal-like spheres over a larger x range than is presently possible.
Concerning further developments, the extension to situations with µ
1
≠ 1 is straightforward. Furthermore, it would be nice to make better use of the existing MATLAB visualisation tools. Finally, an extension to include scattering on coated spheres
(BH, Section 8.1) and on other particles should be done as well.
Abramowitz M. and I.A. Stegun (eds.), “Handbook of Mathematical Functions”, Dover Publication,
New York, NY (1965).
Bohren C.F. and D.R. Huffman, “Absorption and Scattering of Light by Small Particles”, John Wiley,
New York, NY (1983).
Chandrasekhar S., "Radiative Transfer", Dover Publication (1960), BEWI TDD 211.
Deirmendjian, D. “Electromagnetic Scattering on Spherical Polydispersions”, American Elsevier, New
York, NY (1969).
Ishimaru A., “Wave propagation and scattering in random media”, Vol. 1, Academic Press, Orlando,
FL (1978).
Math Works, “MATLAB User’s Guide”, Natick, MA (1992).
Meador W.E. and W.R. Weaver, “Two-Stream Approximations to Radiative Transfer in Planetary
Atmospheres: A Unified Description of Existing Methods and a New Improvement”, J. Atm.
Sciences, Vol. 37, pp. 630-643 (1980).
van de Hulst H.C. “Light Scattering by Small Particles”, (1957), reprinted by Dover Publication, New
York, NY (1981).